Presented a survey of bioactive compounds discovered from marine sponges in the recent five years, including the classes, distribution and their potential pharmaceutical uses. In particular, the compounds with antitumor, antivirus and antibacteria activity were discussed with their originating marine sponge species. Whereas the "Supply Problems" were identified to hinder the clinical tests and commercial applications of most of the sponge bioactive compounds. In vitro cell culture of marine sponges is one of the most promising approaches to solve this problem. The state-of-the art of marine sponge cell culture and the challenging areas were discussed. A brief summary of the R&D status was also given on the bioactive compounds from marine sponges in Chinese oceans. It is crucial to invest more efforts on studying marine sponges and their bioactive compounds in our country in order to develop new marine drugs of independent intellectual property.
Animals ; Biological Factors ; isolation & purification ; Cell Culture Techniques ; methods ; Marine Biology ; Porifera ; chemistry ; cytology

Neural stem cells in brains have capacities of proliferation and differentiation, which is very critical to rebuild the cerebral cortex functions. Therefore, it is of great importance to find key targets and network pathways that regulate the proliferation of neural stem cells, which is also a pressing problem in the medical circle. With the Notch pathway as the core of the network, this paper summarized the advance of the bimolecular network system composed of Wnt, Shh, EGFR, cytokines and Notch signal, and analyzed such key nodes as Notch receptor, CBF1, NICD, Hesl, which may become potential targets of new-type drugs in the future. With the multi-component, multi-target, multi-lever characteristics, traditional Chinese medicines have many common grounds with the network pharmacology. The active component groups or active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines are one of the material bases for showing their network pharmacological effect, which is worth exploring. This paper aims to provide a new strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease and nerve injury with traditional Chinese medicines.
Animals ; Cell Proliferation ; Humans ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; Systems Biology

Animals ; Biophysics ; history ; Cell Biology ; history ; Cell Proliferation ; Chickens ; China ; Crustacea ; cytology ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Models, Theoretical

A number of mechanical cell stimulators have been used to study the effect of mechanical stimulation on cells in vitro. But the efficiency of these devices is not fully desirable. We recently developed a new device for mechanical cell stimulation, the centrifugal force stretcher, and compared its efficacy with that of the traditional Flexercell Strain Unit. When the mechanical stretcher circumrotates with certain speed, cardiac myocytes attached on the plate are stretched and elongated by centrifugal force. Neonatal rat cardiac myocytes were isolated by enzymatic dissociation from the hearts of 3~5 d old Sprague Dawley rats, and were mechanically stimulated by traditional 20% stretch and 180 r/min centrifugal force for 12 and 24 h. The effects of mechanical stimulation on the hypertrophic response of neonatal rat cardiac myocytes and production of angiotensin II (Ang II) were examined. Compared with the non-stretch group, the radioactivity of (3)H-leucine incorporated into the stretch-stimulated cardiac myocytes in the centrifugal force stretch group was significantly higher [(1295.17+/-51.19) vs (1122.67+/-51.63) in 12 h; (1447.5+/-35.96) vs (1210.67+/-90.92) in 24 h, P<0.05]. Ang II was also dramatically increased by 128% in 12 h (P<0.05) and 139% in 24 h (P<0.01). After the myocytes was stretched for 24 h, the LDH level in the medium in the Flexercell Strain Unit group was significantly higher than that in the centrifugal force group [(14.5+/-8.7) U/L vs (7.8+/-4.3) U/L, P<0.05]. The centrifugal force stretcher is a new and improved mechanical cell stimulator with the same effects on the protein synthesis and Ang II secretion of the cardiac myocytes, and the damage to the cells bronght by this stimulator is relatively slighter in comparison with the Flexercell Strain Unit.
Angiotensin II ; secretion ; Animals ; Cell Biology ; instrumentation ; Cells, Cultured ; Centrifugation ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; cytology ; metabolism ; Protein Biosynthesis ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tensile Strength

Objective: To determine the tear and ocular surface profile of the anophthalmic socket in relation to the contralateral normal eye. Methods: Twenty-five adult patients with unilateral anophthalmic sockets were included into the study. They were at least 2 months post-enucleation or post-evisceration and without any topical medications on the anophthalmic socket and control eye for at least 2 weeks. Assessment was performed using the following parameters: (1) meibomian gland evaluation, (2) ocular surface staining, (3) degree of conjunctival inflammation, (4) Schirmer I and II, and (5) conjunctival impression cytology. Results: Mucoid discharge (52%) was the most common complaint in anophthalmic sockets, followed by itchiness (40%), tearing (36%), and dryness (4%). Compared to control eyes, the anophthalmic sockets had more pronounced and statistically significant lid wiper epitheliopathy, conjunctival staining, and bulbar inflammation. Meibomian gland dysfunction, Schirmer I and II, and conjunctival impression cytology showed no difference between the 2 groups. There was a correlation between the symptoms complained and the ocular staining patterns of the anophthalmic sockets. Conclusion Anophthalmia predisposes to various ocular surface problems, such as a change in the composition of tears, specifically an increase in the mucin component and a decrease in the aqueous and lipid components, resulting to increased tear viscosity.
onjunctiva ; Cytology

Hepatocytes ; cytology ; Humans ; Liver ; cytology ; Stem Cells ; cytology

Endothelial progenitor cells are precursors of endothelial cells, which are able to differentiate into mature endothelial cells. Studies are needed to increase more detailed understanding on the mechanisms of EPC-differentiation, survival, homing and distribution of the tissue. The human EPC has potential to be used as diagnostic and prognostic or therapeutic tools in the future. This review describes recent studies on the biological characteristics and clinical application of EPC, including immunophenotype and functional characteristics of EPCs, mobilization, release and differentiation of EPCs, EPC number and recruitment, clinical application of EPCs, and so on.
Endothelial Cells ; cytology ; Humans ; Stem Cells ; cytology

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) envelope glycoprotein (gp51/gp30T-), consisting of BLV gp51 and BLV gp30 that lacked its C-terminal transmembrane domain, was expressed in insect cells under the control of the baculovirus polyhedron promoter. Recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- secreted from insect cells was determined by immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent and western blot assays using a BLV-specific monoclonal antibody and BLV-positive bovine antibodies. An agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test using gp51/gp30T- as the antigen for the detection of BLV antibodies in serum was developed and compared to traditional AGID, which uses wild type BLV antigen derived from fetal lamb kidney cells. AGID with the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- was relatively more sensitive than traditional AGID. When the two methods were tested with bovine sera from the field, the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- and traditional antigen had a relative sensitivity of 69.8% and 67.4%, respectively, and a relative specificity of 93.3% and 92.3%. These results indicated that the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- is an effective alternative antigen for the diagnosis of BLV infection in cattle.
Agar ; Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Antigens, Viral/immunology ; Baculoviridae/*metabolism ; Cattle ; Cell Line ; Enzootic Bovine Leukosis/blood/immunology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral/*physiology ; Immunodiffusion/methods/*veterinary ; Kidney/cytology ; Leukemia Virus, Bovine/genetics/*metabolism ; Molecular Biology ; Sheep ; Viral Envelope Proteins/genetics/*metabolism

Hepatocytes ; cytology ; Liver, Artificial

The study was carried out on 61 chronic myelo-granulocytic leukemia (CML) patients aimed to investigate the cytological features of peripheral blood. The results showed that all patients had laboratory features of normocytic and normochromic anemia (RBC counts: 2.8T/L +/- SD 0.59). All patients have increased WBC and platelet counts (WBC count: 210.5G/L +/- SD 101.0, platelet count: 624.3G/L +/- SD 431.9). The differentiated white cells showed all types of granulocytic cell (myeloblast 1.5%, promyelocytes 4%, myelocytes 15.5%, metamyelocytes 14.8%, band forms 7.1%, segmented neutrophils 44.9%, basophils 3.3%, eosinophils 2.4%, lymphocytes 5.4%, monocytes 0.1%) with the increase on absolute number and percentage of basophil and eosinophil. However, there was no elevation in myelocyte count compared with metamyelocyte count
Leukemia ; diagnosis ; Cytology ; blood